There are numerous systems for managing access to restricted areas. Corporate and government employees use key codes or access badges to enter buildings or secure areas where sensitive information is stored or private meetings are held. Bank cashier's use codes, badges, or keys to access a cashier's cage. And hotel patrons use card keys to enter their hotel rooms. All of these systems have at least one thing in common—access to the restricted area is managed by manual intervention. For example, if an individual wants to access the area an administrator will activate or deactivate an access card or key code for the individual. Alternatively, someone authorized to access the secure area can manually open the door for the individual.
While the aforementioned systems provide security, manual administrative intervention has its disadvantages. For example, business meetings scheduled in restricted areas often include numerous individuals that are not authorized to access the area. Currently, an administrator has to manually issue to each unauthorized individual a temporary badge or key code for the restricted area. Alternatively, a person authorized to access the area may have to open that area's door for each unauthorized individual. The need to manually issue badges or open the door for each unauthorized individual is cumbersome and inefficient, and may elevate security risks. Therefore, there is need in the art for systems and methods that can automatically grant to an individual temporary access to a restricted area during a certain time period.